FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Duchamp’s Fountain Press Release

“A new 'WOW' for Pollock!”
TGIPRESS

“In his newest article, Jack Hagel nails cutting-edge science to the world’s most controversial art. In this not-to-be missed essay, Hagel breaks new ground interpreting two of the most opaque subjects on the planet: finding new appreciation for Jackson Pollock’s ‘drip paintings’ among the formulas and findings of quantum physics. Hagel’s paper is truly eye-opening!”
…Daily Journal


Hagel takes on the art of Jackson Pollock and quantum physics in his new research paper: Mediating Nature Through Paint: the Search for Meaning in the Canvases of Jackson Pollock


Around the mid 1940’s in his Springs New York studio, Jackson Pollock dripped paint onto his canvas and declared, “I am nature!” Reaction to his new work in the art world was volcanic, striking venom in headlines that shouted ‘MANIAC!’ ‘THE DEATH OF ART!’ ‘DRIP DRIVAL!’ and ‘JACK THE DRIPPER!’


Clement Greenberg in a 1947 Times article cited Pollock as “the most important painter in America,” while other critics called his work trash.

Yet for all the furious backlash, scholars, curators and arts commentators have pressed ahead attempting to understand and search for meaning in Pollock’s seminal abstract art. Over the years, he’s been linked to expanding the vocabularies of Surrealism, Dadism, Primitivism and Abstract Expressionism. Recently, mathematics and science have entered the fray, with scientist Richard Taylor offering up the identification of natural fractal forms in Pollock’s drip canvases in an attempt to more closely link his work to nature. In the latest round of dialogue, Dr.Taylor’s 2006 insights have been sharply criticized as too narrow and limiting by University of Southern California’s Michael Schreyach, in his 2007 Apollo article, “I am Nature.”

Now, in 2009, Hagel goes beyond Taylor’s and Schreyach’s arguments, opening up a new approach to Pollock. In Hagel’s latest research paper, “Mediating Nature Through Paint: the Search for Meaning in the Canvases of Jackson Pollock,” Hagel travels back to the roots of Pollock’s Springs studio and reconsiders Pollock’s art in relationship to new expanded definitions of nature and reality and their reciprocal impact. Presenting a compelling and accessible interpretation of complex physics little known outside of the scientific community in relationship to Pollock’s enigmatic canvases, Hagel provides web links to further study the science as well as the art. In this latest essay, Hagel brings the combined world of science and art to a new level of meaning that travels well beyond the scope of the paper, delivering implications that may profoundly touch our lives.♦